Attic fire damages garage at Talent medical pot site

TALENT — An attic fire scorched a portion of a garage used as a registered medical marijuana growing site in the 8000 block of Wagner Creek Road in Talent.

TALENT — An attic fire scorched a portion of a garage used as a registered medical marijuana growing site in the 8000 block of Wagner Creek Road in Talent.

The structure fire was reported just before 9:30 a.m. Friday by a neighbor who saw smoke rolling from the large outbuilding.

Jackson County Fire District No. 5 Fire Chief Dan Marshall said the district, Medford Fire-Rescue and Ashland Fire-Rescue responded with a total of three fire engines and three water tankers.

"Upon arrival we had heavy smoke in the attic area," Marshall said.

Crews were able to stop the fire before it could burn into the main level of the building. It took firefighters about 15 minutes to stop the flames from spreading to the bottom level of the garage. No one was hurt.

Marshall said attic fires take longer to extinguish because of the difficulty in getting access to the upper levels of buildings.

"An attic fire's a little more difficult to fight," he said.

Marshall said the address is registered as a marijuana growing site under the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program.

As of Friday afternoon, the fire's cause was still under investigation, but it was suspected to be electrical. Fire officials do not believe the grow operation was connected to the fire's cause.